


orange

by ga_bi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Author Is Sleep Deprived, BAMF Marlene McKinnon, BAMF Sirius Black, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Birthday Party, Blushing, British Slang, Bullying, Character Study, Clingy Sirius Black, Confessions, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drunken Shenanigans, Established Relationship, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Good Friends, Hogwarts Prefect Remus Lupin, Hogwarts Prefects, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Homophobic Language, Howlers (Harry Potter), ILL STOP MAKING TAGS NOW SORRY, James Potter is a Good Friend, James Potter is a sap, Kissing, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marlene McKinnon & James Potter Friendship, Multi, Nicknames, One Slur, Oranges, POV Mary Macdonald, Polyamory, Pre-Threesome, Sirius Black & Marlene McKinnon Friendship, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin Fluff, Slurs, Spin the Bottle, Truth or Dare, Veritaserum, an orange on my desk, anyway, enjoy i guess?, good parents, have fun, i just really like the marauders okay, i promise you'll like the ocs, like i dont even know what the beginning of this is, literally this was inspired by the most random thing, lol its not what it sounds like, marlene is a flirt, not enough love for my marauder girls on this site, okay i need to stop making tags, okay it is, remus is done with everyones shit, sorry - Freeform, sorry that was the last one i promise, theyre all whipped for each other istg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28657917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ga_bi/pseuds/ga_bi
Summary: mary macdonald and the color orange.basically beginning as a crack fic with a truth or dare birthday celebration with our favorite marauders
Relationships: Benjy Fenwick/Mary Macdonald, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes/Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: finished





	orange

**Author's Note:**

> HI so i completely forgot how to make summaries because im sleep deprived. 
> 
> cw: use of the word d*ke (not graphic, just as a mention), childhood teasing, alcohol
> 
> lol please enjoy <3
> 
> as always, a disclaimer that luna lovegood wrote the harry potter series idk what ur talking about who is jk rowling?? anyway i don't own any of the canon characters.

For as long as Mary Macdonald could remember, oranges had been a part of her life.

Her first memory was of her mother feeding her an orange on a high chair. When she was seven, her father, in a panic, had painted her entire room a tangerine color, because there weren’t any more cans of lavender paint left in the store. Each morning for school, her parents kissed her on the crown of her head and sent her with an orange or two in her lunchbox. 

“We love you, Mary!” they would say, waving as the school bus picked her up.

Her shampoo, instead of being the trendy scent of vanilla and strawberries, had a laughably predictable tangerine and mango aroma. She painted her nails bright orange on the weekends, and her backpack was the most eye-catching orange color she could find. Her classmates started calling her a traffic cone. They drenched her in orange paint after school, mushed her treasured lunchtime oranges through her hair, and called her attention-seeking. When she came home, she told her parents that they had painted in art class. 

Mary, at the age of eight, decided that she hated oranges.

Over the summer, she ditched her fluorescent backpack, swapping it for a more muted grey color. She took off her nail polish and bought the trendy shampoo. She covered her bright orange walls with a tapestry and various paintings. When she went to school in the fall, she loudly spoke about how much she hated the color.

She was upset when the color was even mentioned, or when she saw the fruit in the supermarket. Her parents were immensely concerned, but she threw fits whenever they tried to speak to her about it. 

“Our little Mary is probably just growing up,” her father commented one morning over coffee, and pinched her cheek.

When she went to Hogwarts at the age of eleven, she packed the most bland clothes she could think of. Greys, blacks, whites, and soft blues to match her eyes. Never orange. 

She fit right in amongst the other students. Orange wasn’t even a House color. She could exist peacefully within the cold stone passageways and bright red tapestries of her dorm without even thinking about the color.

Over the years, Mary had begun to feel a tad more confident. Marlene said and did and wore whatever and whoever she wanted, even if it was against the school code. Dorcas was a proud lesbian even though people called her a dyke, and wore slacks every day instead of a skirt. Lily had adamantly stood up for any student that was being bullied and comforted many a first year. Mary decided that this year, among the comfort of her friends, she would try to like orange again.

She had never _stopped_ liking the color or the fruit, it had just given her a bad feeling. After all, a year of horrid bullying never really goes away, no matter how hard she tried to forget it. 

So it was seventh year, and she bought a tin of orange chocolates. She brought the little tin to a small party the seventh-year Gryffindors were having for her birthday-- well, the Gryffindors and some of the Ravenclaw sevenths. 

Adrian Fawcett and Blaze Stebbins couldn’t make it, because they had been caught snogging in a broom closet and had gotten detention for that night. Adrian had baked small chocolate cupcakes for everyone and dropped them off earlier in the day, and Blaze had gifted Mary a giant canister of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans with a Howler of him yelling ‘Happy Birthday’ during breakfast. 

In attendance for the Ravenclaws were Emmeline Vance, Helle and Phrixus Vane, and, of course, Benjy Fenwick. 

Now, Mary would never admit it, but she had a giant crush on Benjy ever since Care of Magical Creatures in third year. He drew her in with his soft smiles, careful hands, and shy sort of charm. 

Unbeknownst to Mary, he was absolutely smitten with her. 

The students were hiding out in the Marauders’ dorm room, and were all sitting in a circle. It was past curfew, and James and Sirius had placed heavy silencing charms on the room so as not to wake McGonagall. 

Sirius passed around a bottle of firewhisky laced with Veritaserum that he nicked from someplace, and they all took long drinks. Helle had brought an armful of Zonko’s tricks for her, and her twin, being a prefect, had arrived with a sigh and a reluctant, “I won’t take any points if I catch you in the halls after hours,” to which Helle had promptly smacked him in the arm, calling him a hypocrite, and the rest of them laughed. He had then turned over his actual gift, which was four pairs of socks with funky patterns wrapped in newspaper. Mary pulled a pair on instantly.

Peter had bought her a pocket Sneakoscope, Remus a couple of his favorite books, Sirius an extra bottle of unopened firewhisky, and James had gotten her a Celestina Warbeck t-shirt.

Her roommates had pitched in to buy her a giant makeup set and her favorite flowers with a well-placed Preservation charm (probably done by Lily), while Marlene joked that now she could stop stealing her eyeliner. 

Benjy, though, Benjy had arrived with a small little orange-wrapped box, and discreetly pressed it into her hand at the start of the party. “Open it later,” he said with a soft smile, and sat across the circle from her.

After being decidedly tipsy from the alcohol and spinning with the effects of the Veritaserum, they all got comfortable on the floor for a long game of Truth or Dare. 

James leaned against his bedpost, one arm around Lily and one around Sirius (who pouted like a puppy whenever James ‘abandoned’ him). Next to Sirius was Remus, then Benjy, Phrixus, Helle, Marlene, Dorcas, Emmeline, Peter, Mary, and back to Lily. 

They spun an empty Butterbeer bottle to see who would start it off. It landed on Helle, who grinned. “Mary,” she began, “Truth or dare.” 

Her friends watched her expectantly, and she thought for a moment before saying, “Truth.”

Helle, clearly slightly defeated by this idea, thought for a little while before a devious grin overtook her face. 

“What are your true feelings towards Sirius?” 

Sirius laughed, a light blush coloring his cheeks. Before Mary could think, she was responding. “Sirius? He’s one of my good friends, I’d say. He definitely tries to use humour as a coping mechanism of some kind, and it works on the general populace.” Sirius blanched at that, and Mary sent him an apologetic look. “Sorry. Can’t help it, y’know. Contrary to what many may think, I don’t actually have a crush on him. He’s nice to look at, sure, but not my type,” she said, blushing a bit. 

They all laughed at that, and Sirius clutched his chest in mock despair. 

“Alright then… Peter, truth or dare?”

Peter instantly turned red and, after deliberating for a moment, chose dare. Mary suspected that this was largely due to the fact that he wanted to prove himself somehow to James and Sirius. 

Helle looked like she wanted to say something, but Mary silenced her with a raising of her eyebrows. “Oh, Pete, I’m truly sorry for this one,” she began, and they all knew she was being truthful. “I dare you to sing Emmeline Vance a love ballad,” she said with a grin. 

There was a lot of friendly laughter throughout the room, because everyone knew about Peter’s hopeless crush on Emmeline (except for her, of course). After a gruelling three minutes of Peter’s awful singing about how much he wanted to smell her hair, both he and Emmeline were beet-red and the rest of the group had devolved into laughter. 

“Sorry, Pete, I really don’t feel the same way,” she said quietly, but gave him a kiss on the cheek anyway. 

“It’s alright, I’ll get over it,” he said honestly, “as long as we’re friends I’ll be happy,” he said, to a chorus of “aaw’s.” The two of them smiled and hugged, before Peter said, “Hmmm… Marls, truth or dare?” 

Marlene looked up from where she was deftly braiding the ends of the Marauders’ rug, and grinned, “Dare,” before taking another swig of firewhisky. 

“I dare you to sit on Dorcas’ lap,” he said smugly, and her face turned red. 

“Not a problem,” she said smoothly, despite her red face, and plopped onto Dorcas, grabbing her friend’s arms and wrapping them around her waist. Dorcas had become very quiet and looked like a deer caught in headlights. Mary noted that Helle pointedly looked away from the two.

Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, Marlene had dared James and Sirius to streak through Hogwarts on their broomsticks in only their pants, who in turn dared Remus to turn his hair bright pink, who then asked Helle what she fancied most about each person in the room (turned out she had a massive crush on Marlene, who blew her a kiss). Emmeline and Phrixus had just finished having a very uncomfortable shirtless snog across the circle, and Lily confessed that she had fallen in love with James the year before, who looked incredibly excited at this new information. 

“Benjy,” Lily began, “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Benjy said easily, playing with his Ravenclaw tie. 

“What’s your favorite color?” Lily said, to roars of outrage among the circle. “What? Sorry, it was the first thing that came to mind,” she said, her face red in embarrassment. 

Benjy grinned. “Well, orange has been my favorite color for years, but I- I- ugh-” he looked like he was trying to fight the Veritaserum now, and everyone was curious as to what he would say. Mary was very concerned- did faces get that red? He had stood up and was trying to exit the circle, but before he could move, his voice betrayed him. “-Mary’s eyes are my favorite color,” he said in a choked sort of gasp, and looked at the rug determinedly.

Everyone fell quiet, and averted their eyes from Benjy.

Mary stood up, crossing the circle without question. “Benjy?” she said softly, taking hold of his elbow and looking into his dark eyes. “Orange is my favorite color too,” she explained, then groaned. “Ugh! That’s not what I was trying to say, I- I really like you, Benjy Fenwick,” she said, blushing. 

“Really?” he brightened slowly, his eyes lifting in a soft smile.

“Well, she can’t exactly lie under Veritaserum, can she?” Sirius deadpanned, and Marlene shouted impatiently, “just snog already!”

Mary turned to them and shot them a glare before returning to Benjy’s eyes. “I’d rather wait a bit, if that’s alright,” she said, and he nodded in agreement. When they returned to the circle, they sat next to each other, knees touching. 

Peter, being displaced, had sat next to Phrixus and Remus, who were eyeing each other in mutual appreciation for the academics (and of course, Phrixus hadn’t yet noticed that Remus had charmed his hair bright blue to match Remus’ pink). Sirius was busy drinking his way through the rest of the firewhisky, and Marlene kept reaching across the circle to swipe it out of his hands and grab her fill every so often. Helle was nibbling on a sugar quill, eyeing Marlene and Dorcas with jealousy. 

“Wait, why have I never seen you wear orange before, Mary?” Dorcas asked once they had all sat and quieted down. “If it’s your favorite color, I mean,” she asked, to choruses of “yeah’s.” 

“Um- I...I was bullied, for awhile, because of it,” she said uncomfortably, and Benjy squeezed her knee sympathetically. “I haven’t worn it since I was eight,” she said, and bit her lip in an effort to not say anything else.

“That’s terrible,” Benjy said, and her friends nodded. 

“How do you feel about the color now? I mean, would you object to us turning your robes orange?” James said, clearly in an attempt to cheer her up.

“It would be terrifying,” she admitted, “but I’d… I’d really like that,” she said, feeling tears coming on as a result of her love for her friends.

With a wave of Lily’s wand, her black robes were charmed into an impossibly bright orange. She smiled, and tears were flowing freely down her cheeks now. Benjy wrapped her in a hug, and Lily crossed the circle to embrace her best friend. 

“We love you, Mary, and we’ll never make fun of you,” someone said, and Mary cried a bit more because she knew they were telling the truth.

After her tears dried, they resumed the game, and Benjy and Mary were pleasantly drunk and leaning against each other, giggling every five seconds. 

Truth or Dare had been turned into Spin the Bottle, and James and Sirius were the first to kiss, making it a big, drawn-out affair that resulted in both of their partners sharing an exasperated sigh. 

“Oi, Moony, did you really not get jealous?” Sirius said, looking a bit put out, and Remus laughed. 

“It’s James, you two are practically brothers. Besides, I know you’ll snog me senseless later,” he said, and then cursed the Veritaserum vehemently. Sirius grinned and pulled him into his lap, and Remus scowled, but clearly loved it.

Remus spun, and he shared a quick peck with Emmeline, who then kissed Lily, who landed on James, much to her delight.

“It was meant to be,” James said solemnly, and Lily laughed and called him a sap before kissing him. James spun again, and kissed Marlene, and the two were laughing so hard it could barely be called a kiss.

Marlene then spun, and it was in between Helle and Dorcas. She shrugged, grinning. “Who says I can’t kiss both of you?” She pulled them both into a heated kiss, and the three of them looked thoroughly starstruck by the time she was done. 

Phrixus, throughout the entire ordeal, had been staring at Mary with a ‘help me’ expression, not wanting to see his twin do things that should clearly be kept to the bedroom by the sounds they were all making. Mary giggled and waved him off, breaking up the girls with a smirk and a, “might be best to take that to the rooms later.” Clearly this had the unintended effect, because Phrixus looked like he would rather be anywhere else and had turned extremely pale. 

It was three a.m. now, and with several couples looking like they wanted to be in bed with each other (and many others looking like they wanted to be sleeping), Mary called off the party. Dorcas, Marlene, and Helle left as quickly as possible, their faces still red and hair still messy, and James said he would walk Lily to the foot of her stairs (“Honestly, what a _sap_!” said Sirius). Peter waved goodbye to Emmeline, and she and Phrixus made their way back to Ravenclaw common room. Remus and Sirius kicked Mary and Benjy out of the room with a promise to Peter to put silencing charms around their bed, and Mary was left to descend to the common room with Benjy. 

“I had a lot of fun tonight,” Mary said, taking Benjy’s hands in hers. “Thank you for the party.” He smiled at her. 

“Of course, Mary,” he said pleasantly, “Why don’t you open that gift?” 

Mary remembered the little orange box that he had given her at the beginning of the party. It seemed so long ago. She reached into her pocket, and it was there. She looked up at him and his sheepish smile. Her heart hammering in her chest, she opened it carefully. There, a little silver necklace lay. A wire-twisted heart lay on the center, and she could tell that it was something that Benjy had made himself. 

She let out a breath, looking up at him. “Benjy, it- it’s beautiful,” she said, her eyes crinkling into a smile. 

“Let me,” he said, and took the necklace from her, sweeping her long brown hair away from her neck so he could place it on her. With careful fingers, he fastened the necklace around her neck, his breath hot against her cheek as he focused on the intricate clasps. “There,” he said when he was finished, his fingers lingering on the soft pale skin of her neck. Their eyes met, and before she knew it, she had reached up to kiss him, stepping on her tiptoes and placing her hands against his chest to capture his lips against her own.

Benjy responded carefully, his hands intertwining in her hair, pulling her forward slightly with a small gasp. “Mary,” he murmured, and that was all it took for her to become undone. “You’ve no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he said with a shaky laugh.

“Trust me,” she said after they pulled away, her heart racing, “me too.”

They kissed again, with open mouths this time. He tasted of firewhisky and honey and something deeper and citrusy, something that Mary hadn’t tasted in a long time. Oranges. 

Mary decided, right then and there, that orange was her favorite color once again. Because it reminded her of her darling Benjy.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this lmao
> 
> i promise my other fics are more coherent
> 
> marauders fics:  
> awash with color (multi-chaptered, soulmate AU: jegulus, jily, wolfstar, dorlene, etc. everyone gay lolol. helle, phrixus, adrian and blaze are from this fic!!)  
> turn of events (oneshot, jegulus)  
> our boys (oneshot, minerva x poppy fluff)
> 
> avatar fic:  
> Always Forever (multi-chaptered, zukka, mailee, tyzula)
> 
> thanks again for reading <3


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